Messara has eyes on scaling Everest with Mazu
John Messara says having a winning chance in today’s $15 million The Everest (1200m) outweighed the possibility of a boost for one of Arrowfield’s young stallions when selecting their runner, but in the case of this year’s representative Mazu, he believes there is the real prospect of both.
A son of the Hunter Valley stud’s Japanese shuttler Maurice (Screen Hero), the Triple Crown Syndications-owned Mazu was snapped up on a two-year deal to race in the slot of Arrowfield and The Star Casino back in May, ahead of the four-year-old’s breakthrough Group 1 success in the Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1200m).
“The stallion is a bit beside the point because when you lock in an expensive slot, you want the horse that can win the race. We took the view that he was going to become a Group 1 winner, before he won the 10,000, and he became a Group 1 winner after we tied him up for this year and next,” Messara told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“We thought he’d be competitive [in The Everest] and he’s been competitive in his subsequent couple of races and the trainer feels that he’s got him right for Saturday, so there wasn’t much of a risk, I thought at the time, because he was the obvious horse on the improve.”
Arrowfield and The Star partnered in 2021 to ensure a seat at the table of the richest race on turf until 2024, sharing the burden of the $600,000-per-year cost of the slot that the Sydney-based entertainment group have held since the inception of The Everest in 2017.
Arrowfield is one of four stallion farms to hold a slot in the lucrative race, with Aquis Farm selecting the unknown quantity Joyful Fortune (Nicconi), while Godolphin and Coolmore have opted for horses by stallions they have an interest in. The former have put faith in their homebred entire Ingratiating (Frosted), while Coolmore, who won The Everest in 2019 with Yes Yes Yes (Rubick), opted for Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Jacquinot, a son of Rubick (Encosta De Lago), who stands at Swettenham Stud in partnership with the Coolmore operation. The latter was the subject of a $15 million swoop by Widden in a stud deal concluded on Thursday.
Last year, the Arrowfield and Star partnership recouped $1.3 million against their significant outlay when Eduardo, then an eight-year-old son of Host (Hussonet), finished third to Nature Strip (Nicconi) and the focus was once again on finding a contender for the race to reap a return on investment, which only materialises should their selection finish in the top five positions.
It is for this reason the slotholders took the unprecedented step of locking in their selection for two consecutive years, with the calculation that the progressive Mazu would represent a greater winning proposition in 2023.
“I really think next year is going to be his year in that he’ll have another six to 12 months in maturity and development and practice,” Messara said. “That’s why we did a deal for two years because we felt that, while this year he’s a chance, we felt next year he’d be the better chance.
“You have to take the long-term view because it’s a very competitive race. Last year, we ran third in it, for example, with Eduardo.
“You are trying to see into the future a bit when you are tying up these slots, if you’re tying them up early enough. If you leave it to the last minute, you’re likely to miss out anyway. We backed our judgement and committed a few months ago to Mazu and we’re so confident about him continuing to improve that we thought, ‘is there going to be a better opportunity next year? Probably not’, so we thought we should do a deal for two years and the owners of the horse were quite happy to do that.
“For everybody, it stabilises the situation. They know where they stand for the next 12 months and we know we’ve got ourselves a horse for the race.”
Arrowfield sires have enjoyed notable success in The Everest to date, with Redzel’s victories in 2017 and 2018 fuelling record prize-money hauls for four-time champion sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), while Classique Legend, a son of Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice), claimed the 2020 running of the race.
Maurice has been touted by his stud custodians as a potential champion sire contender, a possibility that has diminished this season due to the injury of dual Derby winner Hitotsu, whose connections had eyes for this season’s $10 million Golden Eagle (1500m).
However, the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Mazu, who stands as a $19 chance for today’s feature at Randwick behind red-hot favourite Nature Strip at even-money, would still propel his sire more than $3.5 million clear at the top of the Premiership should he win today’s $6.2 million first prize.
The gelding finished second to Lost And Running (Per Incanto), who runs in the TAB’s slot for The Everest, in the Premiere Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) last time out, having run fifth in The Shorts (Gr 2, 1100m) first-up on September 17.
“His trainers seem to be happy and he has a sense of timing about him, the horse, so we’ll just wait and see what happens on Saturday,” Messara said.
“It looks a bit of a one-horse affair given the prowess of the favourite [Nature Strip], but it’s also a horse race.”